


Maze

by AuraWhiteFox



Category: Labyrinth (1986), X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Charles!BAMF, Language, M/M, Movie Fusion, Multi, Protective Daddy!Erik, The Bog of Eternal Stench, fairytale situation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-06
Updated: 2011-12-06
Packaged: 2017-10-27 00:30:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 20,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/289579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AuraWhiteFox/pseuds/AuraWhiteFox
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The last thing Erik expected to deal with was a child kidnapping King from another dimension. But that’s what happening. When one night became too much and Erik wished his children gone the Goblin King accepted his wish and stole them away.</p><p>Faced with a future without his children Erik makes a deal with the King, if he can solve the Maze and make it to the Goblin King’s castle in 12 hours he can have his children back.</p><p>If he doesn’t…his children will remain in the Goblin’s hands…as too will Erik.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Maze

**Author's Note:**

> First off I just want to say how much of a pleasure this has all been! This is only my second Big Bang but I'm sure it's not the last.
> 
> Everyone's been so awesome with me on this, my cheerleading best friends, run_raven and aya_shoru who have been kicking me in the pants since day one to finish this, it's thanks to them that I managed to write 17 pages in two hours.  
> Thank you guys.
> 
> Also I would like to thank my beta, Tali you have been beyond awesome! I know how much of a pain I've been and I just want to give you thanks for sticking with me and helping me clean up the mess that I made of the story. :) Your awesome.
> 
> And now I would like to give a huge huge and big thankful to my artist, luna2k! You have gone up and beyond what you had to and not only made some wonderful art for my work but you made more then one! Seriously!? You are like...some angel who gives out wonderful art for lowly writers like me. <3
> 
> Thank you everyone, you are the reason that I continue to write, I hope everyone enjoys this since it was a pleasure and a pain to write, haha.

 

"Wanda! Pietro! Stop running this instant!" Erik yelled frantically as he chased his two children through the small city park, they might have only been five years old, but their tiny little legs moved fast, Pietro more so than his sister.

"Naw, naw, Papa can't catch us!" Wanda shrieked out as she hopped over a puddle.

Erik clenched his teeth in anger. He didn't know why his children were so badly behaved. It was all the time, too! There wasn't a single moment when they just stopped and listened to him and behaved themselves.

Erik liked to blame their bitch of a mother. Emma had always had it out for him, even when they had been dating. That ice bitch was colder than a fucking glacier in the Arctic. They'd only dated for about five weeks before they broke it off. Apparently, even the make-up sex couldn't keep them together.

It had happened the last time they'd ever slept together. They had been invited to an upper class fundraiser by one of Emma’s rich friends and had an argument in front of everyone about something or other. Erik couldn't for the life of him remember what had started it. They had both been drunk because they had consumed too much of the free wine that was offered and had gone home angry and horny. That night they had drunken, awkward sex.

They only realized the next morning, after suffering from terrible hangovers, that they hadn't bothered to use a condom.

Nine months later, Emma gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl. At first, they had both wanted an abortion, but at the last moment, Emma had changed her mind. To this day, Erik still couldn't figure out what had happened to her that changed her mind. It wasn't that Emma liked children —and, in fact, she had expressed her loathing of the little beasts and made sure to stay far away from them at all costs.

When she had told Erik that she was going to go through with the pregnancy, Erik had been speechless with shock. He hadn't objected that much about it, as Emma's body was hers to do with as she wished. He had told her though, when she had come to tell him that she was keeping them, that he wouldn't help her raise them. He would pay for child support, of course, but he wouldn't put his life on hold for her or the babies.

Of course, even though she was the one who had told everyone that she was going to go through with it, she hadn't been able to cope with actually raising the hellions.

Erik had to give her some credit, though; she managed to raise them both for twenty-one months before she began to try to foist them off on him. He reminded her that he had said, under no circumstances, would he raise them for her after she got bored with them. He was already paying her three hundred dollars every two weeks out of his paycheck so that she would have money for them. But it wasn't enough for her. She wanted her life back: the glamour she’d had before she gained pregnancy weight and stretch marks.

So because she was a bitch and use to getting her own way, she contacted one of her outrageously expensive lawyers that spun so much propaganda and law babble that before Erik knew what was happening he had no choice but to take custody of them and let her escape to the Cayman Islands.

Erik had sworn off women for good after her.

So here was Erik, a single father of two and only twenty-six years old. His whole life was forever stalled; all his future plans were burned to ashes and his dreams, to dust.

He hated every single moment of it.

"Get back here!" he finally screamed, his voice several notches higher than his usual gravelly tone. It gained him a lot of disproving looks from passing mothers. He just snarled at them, and they walked away quickly enough.

He finally caught up with the two once they stopped at a nearby drinking fountain, their little bodies heaving for breath.

"Gotcha!" he growled and grabbed their arms

"Awww," they whined in sync, their pouts similar as well.

"Don't you 'aww' me! You're both grounded this instant!" he barked and began the short walk back toward the house, dragging them behind him. The small park was less than a block away from their duplex in the city.

"That's not fair!" Wanda screamed, struggling in his grip. He turned to growl at her and bared his teeth in warning. This just caused her to bare her own tiny crooked teeth back, and a small squeak rose from her throat, her failed attempt at growling, he supposed. Pietro might have his mother's coloring and passive-aggressive manner, but Wanda definitely took after him in both looks and manners.

"Deal with it!" He walked up the small steps and opened the door with some difficulty.

"Don't wanna!" they both cried out as he walked up the staircase and disposed of them in their room. They shared a room because, the one time someone had tried to separate them — it hadn't been Erik— both of them had screamed and screeched bloody murder until they had been put back together.

"Just stay in here and play with your toys. I'll be back to check on you later. Under no circumstance are you to leave this room," he ordered.

"But what if we have to go pee-pee?" Pietro asked, the picture of innocence. Erik knew better. Although, of the two, Wanda might be the mastermind and leader, Pietro could just be as devious as his sister at times.

Erik closed his eyes and counted backwards from ten, first in English and then in German.

"Fine, if you have to go potty then and only then can you leave this room, but if I catch you out for any other reason than that, neither of you will be going to Storm's tomorrow."

They both screamed in horror at that. Storm’s was their favorite daycare center. It was run by a wonderful couple who loved children, something that Erik found weird, but who was he to judge? It was more of a play place then a care center, so that could be the reason why the twins loved it so much.

"Then, behave if you want to go!" Erik snapped before storming out of the room and shutting the door. Erik took a deep breath before striding over to his study, which was only two doors down from the children's room. He opened the door and walked in, but didn't bother closing it. If the twins decided to disobey him, like they always did, it would be easy to catch them if he could see out into the hallway.

He slumped in his favorite lounge chair and gazed out the window. It was a dreary day, and he didn't know what had possessed him to take the kids out to the park earlier, not only because the clouds in the sky were heavy with rain, but because he had known that he would end up chasing after them.

He had so many plans, and none of them had included fatherhood. He had been in the middle of getting his Masters degree in engineering and already had his dream job lined up for when he graduated, but all those dreams had gone up into smoke when Emma had dumped two lumps of pink wiggling flesh into his arms and run off.

There might have been one or two times where they had gotten along, but they were overshadowed by all the times they screamed and threw temper tantrums and Erik yelled back at them.

He would never hit them, though, or tell them that he hated them; he wasn't a monster. Just because he was a reluctant father didn't mean he didn't love them to some degree. They were family after all. Maybe the twins had picked up his unwillingness to be around them and that hurt their feelings, so they wanted Erik to feel just as bad by acting like brats.

It was just… sometimes, he wished that they would go away for a while, somewhere far, far away, so that he could have some peace and quiet, some alone time to himself where he didn't have to worry about what the two hellions were up to.

He'd considered fostering them out or having someone else adopt them, but he'd gone through the system himself, and it hadn't been a pleasant experience to say the least. Even if he didn't exactly like them, he would never subject his children to the horrors that he had experienced as a child.

Erik sighed again and reached out for the small, thin book on the windowsill. Whenever he was in a mood, which was often, he would reread his favorite book to help himself relax.

It had been given to him by his mother, just before she had passed away. It was a children's story, a fairytale that his mother had read to him almost every night when he had been little. Before everything had gone bad, before his father's accident and his mother's illness.

Before the Shaw incident.

Erik shook his head to dislodge the bad memories that were trying to creep up on him. He opened the book to the part he left off at the night before and began to read. The words on the cover of the book flashed gold, illuminating the title in the light: The Maze.

Erik never noticed the small rat sitting on the other side of the window staring at him with clear and calculating eyes, just like it had every night for the past two years.

It was waiting…and soon that waiting would finally pay off.

\--

“Pietro pick up your toys.” Erik growled as he walked towards the phone that was ringing on the end table.

Pietro pouted but half-heartily began to pick up his papers and crayons that were spread around the ground.

Erik raised an annoyed eyebrow as one of the crayons began to roll towards him, he bent down and picked it up, placing it in his pocket to give to Pietro later.

He picked up the phone and barked a rather angry greeting. Listening to the person on the other end for a moment he felt disbelief well inside of him.

"What do you mean you can't take them?" Erik growled into the phone. His hand was clenched tightly around the plastic as he tried to control his temper.

"I'm so sorry, Mr. Lensherr, but Ororo's come down with the flu, so we had to close the daycare for the week. I'm sorry if this is inconvenient for you—"

"Of course, this is inconvenient for me!" Erik growled into the mouth piece. "If you took better care of your employees' heath, then maybe it wouldn't be a damn inconvenience to me!" Erik slammed down the receiver before the person on the phone could give a nasty reply back.

"Papa?" Wanda asked timidly by the door. She and Pietro were all bundled up and ready with their toys and crayons, both of them clearly expecting to go to the care center for the day.

Erik sighed and rubbed his forehead. He wasn't looking forward to this at all. Somehow, he knew that he would be blamed.

"You're not going to daycare today. They're closed," he said icily.

"What!?" Wanda and Pietro yelled, their distress tugging at Erik's heart, but he brushed away the feeling with practiced ease.

"You heard me. So go back upstairs and color or something," Erik dismissed.

"You promised if we behaved yesterday, we could go! You promised, you promised, you promised." Wanda cried out, and Pietro… well, he just cried.

"Well, I lied!" Erik barked out, suddenly tired and angry at everything around him. Why couldn't they just leave him be? "There, you happy now? Your papa's a horrible man who lies."

"I HATE YOU!" Wanda screamed out and grabbed her brother's hand before racing up the stairs.

"Well, good!" He yelled back, wit abandoning him as a heavy feeling of anger and resentment and hurt wavered inside of him. He saw one of Pietro’s crayons on the floor and mindlessly put it in his pocket before storming up the stairs and locking himself in his study, trying to ignore the sounds of crying coming from the other room, not to mention the sounds of several delicate things being thrown against the wall.

Why? What had he done to deserve this? Had he been an evil, power hungry dictator in another live? Is that why the fates decided to make him suffer so?

Erik shook his head and threw himself once again into his chair. He picked up the book, but he couldn't concentrate. His daughter's words and his son's crying just wouldn't leave him alone. They echoed and taunted him repeatedly inside his head. Frustrated, he threw the book on the ground and looked up at the ceiling, tears of frustration leaking from the corners of his eyes. A certain sentence from his favorite book ran through his head. He growled and closed his eyes, whispering out the words that he'd read many times before but had never spoken out loud.

"Goblin King, Goblin King, wherever you may be, take these children far, far away from me," he recited from the book, his voice filled with weary amusement.

Nothing. The crying and object-throwing still didn't stop, and Erik was starting to develop a migraine. He whined at the pain and lowered his head, running his hands through his hair to try to stop the pain.

"I really do wish that he'd come take you brats away. Right now," he moaned into his hands.

Silence.

Erik didn't register it at first because he was still thinking about his headache, but he soon became aware that he couldn't hear anything coming from his children's room. Erik lifted his head and narrowed his eyes which were filled with suspicion. Why would the noise suddenly stop? Usually, when Wanda had a tantrum, she wouldn't stop for another hour at least, but to also have his son's crying stop so suddenly and for Wanda to stop throwing things before she got tired…

Erik scrambled to his feet and practically ran out the door towards their room. The door was still closed off, of course, so he opened it slowly, just in case this was a trap set by his children to bite his ankles or something.

The mess inside didn't surprise him. Wanda had a destructive nature at the worst of times, and Pietro just went along with her mostly, even if he had something of a cleaning complex and picked up the mess afterwards.

What did surprise him was the total absence of sound, not to mention the fact that the room was bathed in total darkness.

"Wanda? Pietro?" he called out and walked into the room, flicking the light switch on the wall and feeling shocked when it failed to bring light to the room.

Had Wanda's throwing broken the overhead light? Was there glass on the floor?

Deeply worried now, Erik walked deeper into the room. He moved towards the small beds that were positioned along the far wall. The small kiddy beds were stationed right next to each other, instead of being on opposite sides to give each other space. There wasn't anything on Wanda's bed, but there was rather large lump on Pietro's. A large comforter covered the lump, though, so he couldn't see his kids hiding.

"Hey, come here," he said as gently as possible. The darkness must have scared them enough for them to run and hide. Wanda might have been brave about a lot of things, but both of Erik's children didn't like the dark very much. He walked forward to the bed, but frowned when the lump failed to move. He reached out and was surprised to notice that his hands were trembling. Shaking his head, he lifted the blanket off the lump. He'd take the kids out for ice cream or something to make up for how horrible the day was going for all of them. "Hey—" The words froze in his throat, and an icy lump formed in his stomach.

The lump had just been a bunched up pillow. His children weren't in the room at all.

Erik quickly turned around as he caught the sound of giggling, but it didn't sound like Wanda or Pietro, and there were far more than two people giggling.

"Who's there!? Where are my children?!" he demanded and stalked forward towards the noise. He still couldn't see much, but he could make out general shapes in the gloom. He shouted in alarm and stumbled back when something crawled on his feet. Whatever it was certainly hadn't been his children.

Before Erik could do or say anything else, the bay window burst open, sending its long curtains fluttering into the room and in Erik’s face. He angrily swept the fabric away and looked at the window, wondering how on earth it had blown open since he specifically kept it locked at all times.

His eyes widened, and he forgot about his questions about the window.

A man stood in front of the window. The curtains didn't seem to touch him at all, but rather fluttered around him. He was dressed… rather interestingly to say the least: leather pants, a mesh shirt made out of some kind of silvery fabric, and heeled leather boots as well as leather gloves. His rather longish brown hair was gelled back from his forehead, making his face stand out. And what a face it was, boyish without being childish. Bright blue almond-shaped eyes stared at Erik. It helped that they were outlined with eyeliner, making them stand out even more against the pale skin of his face.

Erik finally found his voice after a moment. He spent a few seconds checking out the guy, and he would’ve felt guilty about it, if not for noticing that the mysterious man had been doing the same to him.

"Who are you?" he demanded after getting his full share of eye candy for the day. His eyes widened at the thought of his children missing and this man showing up suddenly. There was no such thing as coincidence after all. "And where the hell are my children?!" Hot or not, if this man had hurt his kids, he would torture him in the most terrible ways possible before ending his miserable life.

"Oh, don't worry about them. They're as safe as can be." The man had a pleasant voice, though Erik tried not to let it affect him. It had a soothing effect that Erik felt was both dangerous and highly addicting.

"I didn't ask about that. I asked where they were," Erik growled dangerously. He stepped forward threateningly, but the man had the nerve to laugh at him. Erik bristled at the blow to his pride. He had been told that his teeth could be very imitating when he grinned and downright frightening when he was angry.

But, for some strange reason, this man was unaffected by his rather menacing attitude.

"I know what you meant, my friend. I just did as you asked of me," the man purred at him and lifted one hand. Erik braced himself in case the man tried to attack him, but the only thing the guy did was smirk at him and somehow made a glass bauble appear in his hand. He rolled it mesmerizingly.

"Ask of you? I never asked you for anything! I've never even met you before!" Erik barked out, confused as hell and trying not to stare at the man's hand. The glass ball made him feel strangely dizzy when he stared at it.

The man laughed, cruel and amused. "Oh, but you did, darling. You asked me —no, wished to me— to take your children far away from you. To free you from the shackles of fatherhood. I've only done what you've been craving to happen for years."

Erik's heart beat stopped for a moment and chills ran up and down his spine and his hair stood on end.

"No…it's not possible!" he whispered, frightened, as realization dawned on him.

"But it is." The man's smile was full of sharp-looking canines. If Erik's smile was resembled a shark, then this man's smile was akin to a T-Rex.

"Y— You're the Goblin King." Erik didn't ask. It was more like a confirmation.

The Goblin King's nod did little to ease the ice that filled Erik's soul. "Yes, and I've only done what you wished: freed you, Erik. Now, go enjoy the rest of your life. Your children are mine now." The King turned as if to walk away, finished with his business in the human world.

"No— Wait!" Erik took a step forward, but stopped when the King turned quickly back. Erik hesitated at the unpredictable situation, but quickly steeled his nerves. He couldn't afford to back away in fear now.

"I didn't mean it. Please give them back," he asked meekly, making sure that his body language wasn't at all threatening.

The King frowned. "I cannot do that. You made the wish, and you meant it. I wouldn't have come if it had been a half-hearted wish. Even if you regret it right now, you meant every word that you spoke when you wished for your children to disappear."

"Please," Erik begged. He didn't want to believe what the mythical king was saying. He couldn't have meant it. He might not enjoy being a father, and wished that they behaved instead of being bratty, but that didn't mean he wanted his children gone, maybe taken in to another home, but not for good. Was this what people meant? You never know how good you had it until it was gone? Sure life was full of frustration with them around, but they still had some good times. Erik made a promise then and there that, as soon as he had his children back, he would change.

He'd stop trying to pawn them off on his friends and the care centers and spend more time with them himself and tell them he loved them— Oh, hell, he'd never said that before, had he? No wonder they hated him. Right now, he hated himself as well.

"No."

Gone were the smiles and twinkling eyes. Instead, the King was frowning, and his eyes were dark with danger.

"You can't just change your mind at a drop of a hat. I gave you a gift, a gift! And now you're spitting back in my face." The King shook with anger. "Do you feel guilty? Is that it? If that's the problem, then I can help you with that." He smirked villainously.

Erik stared at him uncomprehendingly.

"How?" he asked, mostly out of curiosity, because it wasn't just guilt that drove him now: it was love, the love of a father who had made a terrible mistake and would fix it at all costs to himself.

The dangerous smile was back, and the glass bauble floated out of the King's hand and flew towards Erik, but before the man could take a step back, it stopped halfway between them.

"I'll erase your memories, of course. Everything about Wanda and Pietro Lensherr would be wiped clean, not just your memories, but those of everyone who ever knew them. The children will never have existed as far as you and everyone else are concerned, so you won't feel any guilt because there will be nothing to feel guilty about."

Erik stared at the King with disbelieving eyes. "That's it? That's your solution?"

The King frowned, confusion plain on his face. "Isn't it enough?"

Erik shook his head, "You don't get it, do you? It isn't about forgetting. I can't forget. I won't," he said firmly. "Now give me back my Children!!"

The King was clearly angry at Erik's defiance. His blue eyes flashed darkly.

"I gave you what you wanted, and this is how you respond?" he hissed. "Fine, have it your way, but I won't make it easy for you."

Suddenly, Erik was no longer in his children's room, but in a wasteland atop a hill scattered with dead trees and rocks.

Staring forward, he saw a huge maze in front of him. It seemed to go on for miles and miles in all directions. In the center of the maze was a large castle with a small village surrounding it.

"Do you see?" the King asked, and Erik felt warm breath caressing his ear.

Erik jumped and tried to step away, but the King held fast to his shoulders with inhuman strength. Erik forced himself to stand still as the King pressed his body against his back. He barely managed to control a shiver of lust as he felt the King's body against his own. What was wrong with him, this man kidnapped his children.

"I have to go through that?" Erik whispered back once he'd swallowed a few times to clear his dry throat.

"Yes, my friend. If you can get through the maze, I will give you back your children and take you home safe and sound," the King whispered into his ears, his hot breath making Erik's ear moist and warm. Erik knew he was blushing, how could he not. He was only lucky that, at this angle, the King couldn't see the redness of his face.

The King finally stepped back and gestured to a large clock that was floating in the air next to them. Erik stared it with incredulity. He hadn't even noticed it until the King had brought it to his attention.

 _I need to get rid of this attraction I have to the King. I need to find my kids, not moon over a hot magical man._ Erik thought silently to himself as he listened to the King explain.

"You have twelve hours starting now to find your way through the maze. If you can reach the castle before the last of the clocks chimes, you may have your children back. But if you cannot, then your children will become mine forever, they will be turned into goblins themselves and become my subjects for all eternity. You won't be allowed to return home, either. You'll wander the maze for the rest of your natural life, never escaping and without hope."

Erik swallowed down his fear and uncertainty. He couldn't afford to doubt himself now. Not when his children were counting on him. They had had so little to count on in their short lives, but he swore that he would change that.

"Fine," Erik said as confidently as he could.

The King stared at him. For a moment, Erik caught a glimpse of uncertainty, doubt, and wonder in his eyes before the King wiped it away and the ice returned.

"Remember: twelve hours," he warned before vanishing.

Erik turned back to the maze.

"Well, no time like the present," he murmured before walking down the hill towards the outer wall to find an entrance into the huge maze. He walked alongside it, looking for the entrance, but eventually grew frustrated as the wall continued to stretch on without any sign of a door.

"What the fuck!?" Erik yelled out. "What's the point of a maze if you can't even enter!?" He kicked at the stone wall uselessly, only managing to bruise his toes.

"Well, aren't you a ball of sunshine?" a gruff voice spoke.

Erik spun around warily. A scruffy-looking man with huge sideburns stood a few feet away from him, holding a watering can in one hand and a beer in the other.

"Who are you?" Erik demanded. Was he a subject of the King, sent to stop or delay him before he even started?

The man snorted dismissingly at him and began to walk away. Erik frowned and gave chase; he did so hate to be ignored.

"Hey, wait up!" Erik called out before running to catch up with the other man. The guy continued not to pay any attention to him, seemingly content with watering the few withering plants along the wall and drinking from his bottle.

"Hey!" Erik repeated, getting really annoyed as the man continued to completely ignore him.

The man finally sighed and stopped walking, giving Erik the stink eye. "Whatcha want, bub?"

"Do you know how to enter the maze?" Erik asked.

"Of course, I know how," the man answered.

"Then how?"

"How what?"

"How do you enter?"

"Enter what?"

"…You're fucking with me."

"Yep."

"I will fucking kick your ass."

"You could try, human, but I can promise you that it won't be a fight you'd win."

 _Deep breaths, just remember to breathe deeply and calmly,_ Erik told himself.

"Could you please show me where the entrance to the maze is located?"

"Now that's the question you should have asked in the first place."

"…I think I hate you."

"Don't care."

Erik clenched his teeth and followed the man a few feet towards the wall where a door had suddenly materialized.

"Oh, I hate that king," Erik growled. If things appeared only at certain times or for the right people, he was so screwed.

The man snorted. "You're not the only one, kid."

Erik looked at the man who had helped him, despite giving him a total headache.

"What's your name?" he asked.

The man looked at him with a baffled expression. "Why?"

Erik sighed. "Look, I just want to know, so I can thank you properly. Is that so bad?"

"Could be."

"Oh, for the love of—"

"It's Logan."

"—god…wait, what?"

"My name. You asked, and I just told you," Logan spoke slowly as if to an idiot.

"I know. I was just— You know what? Fine, hello, Logan. My name's Erik. Goodbye, Logan, thank you for your help," Erik said before stomping through the open doors and into the maze. Erik could hear Logan's snickering just before the doors closed and all sound from the outside was cut off. Erik looked right and left. There wasn't any other direction to walk in, except those two. Some maze. They both looked entirely identical. Erik closed his eyes and turned around several times. Once he'd done that, he opened his eyes again.

Left, it was then.

Erik began to walk forward. He didn't know how much time had passed since the King had taken the floating clock with him, but he felt anxious. Had an hour passed already? Two?

As Erik kept walking, it seemed as if the maze continued on in a straight line with no other path in sight.

"Again, what the hell? Seriously, stop calling this a maze because it's not!" Erik hoped the King could hear him because he was annoyed as fuck right now. He stopped walking and leaned his back against the wall, tired as hell and discouraged. He hadn't even started, and he'd already failed.

"Hallo," a tiny voice answered him.

Erik looked around, but didn't see anyone else.

The only thing that wasn't stone around him was a small caterpillar sitting on a ledge next to him— Oh, hell no. Erik stared at the caterpillar. He felt stupid asking, but— "Did you just say hello?"

"No I said, 'Hallo,' but it's all right," the caterpillar answered him.

Erik closed his eyes and hit the back of his head softly on the stone behind him. Okay, talking blue caterpillars, he could deal with that. Think Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

Erik opened his eyes as he realized that he could ask for directions from the small bug.

"Hey, can you help me?" he asked.

"Possibly," the caterpillar answered back cheerfully.

"I'm trying to get through this maze, but there doesn’t seem to be any other passageways leading out of this long one."

"Really? But there are so many of them!" the caterpillar answered, incredulous.

"Where?" Erik asked, looking around, but the only thing he saw was stone and more stone.

"Well, there's one right in front of you," the caterpillar said.

Erik stared in front of him, but the only thing he saw was a wall. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, yes, go forward. You'll see. Nothing in this maze is what it seems. You'll learn. There are hidden depths in everything and everyone you will meet," the caterpillar said mysteriously.

Erik gave it a look of skepticism, but walked forward and reached a hand out. To his amazement, his hand went right though the wall into open space.

Looking back at the caterpillar, he smiled.

"Thank you." He turned to the left into another part of the maze.

He managed to just hear the caterpillar scream out, "Wait!", and he went back through the wall.

"Yes?" he asked.

"Don't go left. No one ever goes left," it said.

"Oh." Erik thought about it, but shrugged. He didn't have time to ask why.

"All right. Thanks once again," he said before walking to the right.

Erik never heard the caterpillar sigh to itself, "Poor guy, if he'd kept going left, he would have gone straight up to the castle."

\--

The castle was completely silent as the King watched the progress of the human in his small glass baubles. All the smaller goblins either made sure to clear out of the room or stay absolutely quiet, so they wouldn't disturb the King. Two human children were sleeping on a small platform in front of the throne, the hard surface covered with coverlets and feather down blankets to make it more comfortable to sleep on.

While the children slept, the King watched as their father went through the trails of the maze to get them back.

 _So interesting… this human man._ The King's eyes, usually so cold, began to warm ever so slowly.

\--

Erik felt completely lost. He'd walked around in circles, going down one corridor and another only to end up back where he had began. If only he had some way to mark where he'd already been… Wait a minute.

Erik reached inside his pocket and pulled out a small crayon in victory. Pietro had dropped it in the kitchen earlier that morning and he had picked it up and put it in his pocket to put away later.

"Thank you, son," he whispered to himself and smiled at the small red crayon. He bent down and drew an arrow on the stone slab in the direction he was going.

He did it three more times as he continued to go deeper in the maze, but soon he reached a dead end. Not finding any openings that way, he let out a sigh of annoyance before turning back around to find another way, but when he did, he noticed something that made a rush of anger burn through him.

Someone had changed his mark.

The arrow was pointing in a totally different direction than what he had drawn.

"That's not fair!" he yelled out into the silence. If he got his hands on whoever had done this, he was going to ram a metal rod through their spleens!

"Of course it's not fair. Nothing is fair in the maze, not since the King's heart froze," a voice spoke from behind him.

He whirled around and gaped in shock. Where a dead end had been not a moment ago stood two strange creatures and two doors behind them. It looked totally different from what Erik had seen not ten seconds ago.

"What?" he squawked.

"What, what?" the creatures parroted back and then broke out in giggles. Erik pocked the small crayon absently and walked forward to get a better look.

There were two of them holding what looked like a giant pair of Jacks… No, wait, make that four. Erik spotted heads below the cards. Heads above and heads below, could they make this maze any stranger?

Oh, right, the talking blue caterpillar.

"So, where do the doors behind you lead to, gentlemen?" Erik asked courteously as soon as they stopped giggling.

The creatures stared at him, wide-eyed for a moment before breaking out into laughter once again.

"Oh, gentlemen are we? We haven't been called that in a long while," the top left head said.

"Oh, be nice to the human," the bottom right told the others as they snickered. Erik waited with impatience for them to stop laughing long enough to answer his question.

Finally, the top right one answered, "Well, before we answer your question, young man, there is something you should know: one of us always tells the truth, and the other always tells lies. You must figure out which is which before proceeding with caution, for one of the doors leads to the castle while the other—" It stopped talking dramatically for a moment before continuing, "—leads to sudden death."

The other heads did a "bum bum bum!" for dramatic effect.

"…Right," Erik said slowly and huffed out a breath. He thought about what they had just said. Complicated, unwittingly complicated. "So… if I were to ask you on the right if the one on the left would tell me that his door lead to the castle, then would he be lying?"

The right heads looked at each other, which was just weird to watch, and disappeared behind their cloth shield and whispered loudly to each other. After a moment, they came back and answered, "Yes."

"Then, they're telling the truth," Erik said with certainty.

The creatures made a questioning sound, so Erik explained as best he could, "Because you said they'd lie. So if you're telling me the truth, then they're lying, and if you're lying to me, then they're telling the truth. "

"Is that right?" the left top asked the right top.

"Beats me, but the young man sure thinks so."

Erik smirked and opened the door. "Of course, I'm right. It makes sense."

Before he could say anything else, though, he fell through a hole in the floor. That's what he got for gloating, instead of paying attention to where he was walking.

"Shit!" Erik swore as he fell feet-first into the dark hole. He tried to grab hold of something, but before his brain could even register it, something grabbed hold of him instead.

"What the hell?!" Erik shouted as he saw that the wall was covered in nothing but hands, living hands.

"What do you mean by that? We're just helping you out," several of the hands got together to make a face to say.

Erik was really, really trying hard not to freak out.

"Well, your grip is too tight!" he hissed out as one of the hands grabbed a little too close to his crotch.

"Oh? Would you like us to let go?" one of the hand-faces asked maliciously before they all let go of him at the same time.

"NO!" he shouted as he fell a bit further down before being caught again. Erik couldn't help but suspect that he was being played with.

"So what will it be, human? Up or down?" the hands asked.

"Hmm? Oh, well…" Erik looked back up and noticed that he couldn't see the hole he had fallen from and then looked down.

"Hurry up!" the hands said impatiently.

"Well, I guess, since I'm already facing that way, I'll choose down," Erik said.

"He chose down? He chose down!" several hand-faces shouted.

"Was that wrong?" he tried to ask, but they let him go completely, causing him to freefall downwards. Erik just managed to stop himself from screaming when he fell through another hole and onto the ground.

Looking back up, he saw a metal gate close, so going back up wasn't a possibility anymore. The chamber he had dropped into was bathed in total darkness.

"Well, things couldn't possibly get any worse," Erik mused.

"Be careful what you say in this place, bub. Things can always get worse," a voice spoke in the darkness before a torch was suddenly lit.

"Logan!" Erik called out, relieved when he recognized the person holding the lit torch.

"Who did you expect? The Easter Bunny?" Logan chuckled, amused.

"Oh, shut up, you wonderful scruffy man," Erik said as he got up to his feet. "By the way, could you tell me where I am?"

"This place doesn't have a name; it's a deep, dark pit that even the fearless goblins piss themselves at the thought of being stuck in. It's a place to forget someone ever existed. Once you're stuck down here, you can never leave," Logan explained. "Well, usually. Now, before you piss yourself—"

"Who's pissing? I don't know why you're all scared. It's just a dark room. Granted the lack of light could make one go insane after a while, but other than that—"

"—I'm going to get you out of here. I just happen to know a way out of the whole maze," Logan finished as if Erik hadn't spoken.

"No!" Erik yelled out in alarm. "I can't leave, not after I've gone so far." Erik calmed down and looked at Logan pleadingly. "Please, I'll do anything. Just… take me as far as you can to the center."

Logan looked annoyed. "No. You don't get it. It just keeps getting worse and worse. You're better off leaving this place entirely. This is no place for a human."

"Then, what about my children?! They're human, too! I can't leave them…" Erik choked on a sob and sat down on a rock, hanging his head.

Logan sighed and murmured to himself, watching as Erik broke down in front of him, and damned his not-yet-frozen heart. "…Look, how about this? I'll get you out of here and take you topside. I won't take your farther in or farther out, just back where you were before. Is that acceptable?" He asked sarcastically, but with a hint of honestly.

Erik lifted his head and smiled with gratitude. His tear-stained face was painful to look at, but the smile brightened everything. "Yes, thank you!"

"Just don't say I didn't warn you," Logan said before walking towards a wall where a door suddenly appeared in front of him.

Erik sighed heavily, but decided not to comment. Logan didn't have to come to save him, but he had, so the least Erik could do was give him the benefit of the doubt. Besides, Logan could still leave him here alone if Erik annoyed him too much.

Logan unlocked the door and peered inside. Then, he closed it and locked it back up.

"Not that one." Erik watched, bemused, as Logan unlocked the same door with four different keys, each time looking inside before closing it again and trying another.

"Ah, here it is," he said finally and opened the door fully. "Come on, then. We don't have all day," he told Erik before walking through the door and into the hallway outside.

"How did you do that?" Erik asked as he jogged to keep up with the man.

"Remember that not everything is as it seems here. Each key unlocked the door to another part of the maze. I just had to find the one that didn't lead us back to the beginning."

"Oh," Erik said, still amused, "I guess that makes sense."

Logan snorted. "Or at least as much sense as this place can make."

The hallway branched out into many different directions, but it seemed like Logan knew where he was going, so Erik didn't comment one way or another about the direction they were going in. As they walked, Erik peered at the strange carvings on the wall. All of them seemed to be faces, abstract, but easily recognizable.

"What are these?" he asked Logan.

"Hmm?" Logan turned back and saw what Erik was pointing at. "Oh, those? Those used to be the false alarms. They are all over the maze, but the King deactivated them after…well, they don't work anymore. They always shouted warnings and premonitions of death, especially when you were on the right path. Despite being annoying, they were good conversationalists. It's really too bad," Logan explained before continuing on.

Erik followed after him, head down in thought. This wasn't the first time the citizens of the maze had said the King had changed. Had he been different once upon a time? How different? Better or worse then he seemed now? Erik wanted answers, but he somehow knew that if he asked Logan, he wouldn't get any. He'd just have to wait until the perfect moment to ask the questions that were burning in his chest.

Logan stopped so suddenly that Erik almost ran into him.

"What's wrong?" Erik asked him, but Logan wasn't looking at him. Instead, he was staring straight ahead, so Erik turned his gaze frontwards and saw what had scared the strong-willed man.

The King was lounging on a rock, few feet ahead of them. He wasn't looking at them directly, but instead was gazing intently at one of the statues. Erik tried to stifle a gasp, but the King must have heard him because he turned his icy eyes towards them.

"Oh? What do we have here?" He got up to his feet gracefully and sauntered over. Without making it too obvious, Logan shifted to stand in front of Erik, trying to block the human from view.

The smirk on the King's face showed how much he read into that gesture.

"Why Logan, fancy seeing you here. Inside the Maze, that is. Wasn't it you who told me that you'd never set foot inside here again all those years ago? Or was it another ex-captain of the royal guard that told me that?"

Erik stopped his gasp. Logan had been in the King's royal guard? As the captain? What else didn't he know about his newfound ally?

Logan feigned disinterest. "That was twenty years ago, Charles."

The King hissed, "Don't call me that! No one is ever allowed to call me that!"

"You used to insist on it," Logan said solemnly.

"Well, that was then, and this is now. I've changed since you've last seen me, Logan. I'm no longer the naive fool you once knew. But I digress; this isn't the time for fond memories. What are you doing here? Leading the human closer to my castle?" the King asked dangerously

Logan tensed. "I wasn't leading him closer to the castle. I'm just getting him out from the Underground."

"Well, maybe I don't want him out of the underground."

Logan frowned. "Wha? You can't mean that. You know as well as I do that he would have died down here if no one helped him out."

"So?"

Logan stared uncomprehendingly at his King. He shook his head sadly. "You're right, your majesty… I don't know you anymore. You've changed, and not for the better."

The King stared at his former subject with cold eyes. "That's your option. I happen to like myself better this way."

"Liar," Logan said with certainty.

The King frowned darkly at Logan before he suddenly turned his attention to Erik who had been listening intently to the conversation.

"So, my friend, how are you enjoying my maze?" he purred and crept closer to where Erik was standing.

Erik was a bit startled at being addressed. He narrowed his eyes at the King and crossed his arms defensively in front of him.

"It's been a piece of cake. I don't know what I was worrying about in the beginning," he bit out defensively.

Logan let out a long sigh and slapped a hand to his face.

"Piece of cake? Really now?" the King said softly and touched Erik's cheek with one hand. The glove felt cold against his skin and Erik tried not to shiver at the feeling, but it wasn't exactly unpleasant. He didn't bother backing away from the touch because that would show that he was uncomfortable and that would be a weakness he didn't need the King seeing.

The King stroked once along his cheek before pulling back and walking back the way they had just come from.

"So you think my maze is easy? Well, let's up the stakes, shall we?" the King said, voice devoid of emotion as the clock appeared next to him. The King gestured at it and two hours were taken from it. Erik now had six hours to save his children.

"That's not fair!" Erik yelled with shock and anger.

"So? You sure think that life's supposed to be handed to you on a platter. Makes you wonder how you got so spoiled." The King smirked. "Let's see if my maze is still too simple for you." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a glass bauble and threw it down the corridor. Suddenly, the sound of heavy machinery echoed in the dreary hallway.

"Shit! It's the cleaner! Run!" Logan reached out and snagged Erik's arm before booking it down the hallway as fast as he could.

Erik caught a glimpse of wicked-looking spikes before he turned around and ran as hard as he could. They managed to stay ahead of the death machine behind them as it was slow-moving, and they were faster, but soon their luck ran out as they reached a dead end with nowhere else to go.

"Damn it, you really pissed him off!" Logan snarled at Erik before moving to one of the side walls and pushing on a section of it that seemed to be a slightly different color from the rest. Erik decided that now wasn't the time to respond back and went to help him. The cleaner was growing steadily closer to them.

Under their combined efforts, the wall slid inward and fell to the ground. Erik and Logan managed to get through just as the cleaner swept by.

"Well, that was close," Logan said nonchalantly as he dusted off the dirt and grit that clung to him. Erik just snorted at the understatement before doing the same.

Erik looked around the small room and spotted the ladder leading upward.

"Logan," Erik got his companion's attention.

"Hmm?" Logan looked up and noticed what Erik had seen. "Ah, that's what we needed. Come on, then," he said as he walked over to the ladder and began to climb. Erik followed after a moment. He couldn't help but feel uncertain. Why was Logan helping him? What was going on between him and the King?

Most importantly— who was the Goblin King? And why did Logan call him Charles?

Erik couldn't help but grumble to himself. Too many questions and not enough answers. As soon as they got to the surface, Logan turned to look at Erik with an expression of complete seriousness. "All right, I've done my part. I'm gone."

"What?" Erik asked bewildered.

Logan sighed. "I told you I'd take you topside. That's all. I can't afford to take you closer to the castle."

Erik scowled. "Why? Because of this Charles?"

Logan glared at Erik. "You don't know what you're talking about."

"Well maybe if someone explained it to me, I could!" Erik shouted.

Before Logan could argue back or more likely tackle him to the ground in anger, they were interrupted by the sound of fighting.

"What the hell?" Erik wondered as he cautiously walked towards the noise.

"I wouldn't, bub! You never know what it could be," Logan warned him.

"That's the point of looking isn't it?" Erik said sarcastically.

Logan snorted. "Just don't say I didn't warn ya. I'm out of here."

Erik waved back absently as he walked into a maze of bushes to where the noise was coming from, leaving Logan behind as the man didn't want to go any further. He didn't know how he felt about that. Logan was the only one in the maze who seemed willing to help him, and yet the man stayed mysterious and was sometimes as unhelpful as he was helpful.

As Erik crept closer, the sounds changed, and it didn't sound so much like fighting as taunting. Making sure that his back was pressed against the bushes around him, he peered around a corner to see what all the noise was about.

"Oh that's just mean," he whispered as he spotted a bunch of goblin soldiers torturing a strung-up blue beast.

The creature was moaning and growling in pain and anger as the soldiers used long sharp sticks to poke its sides and stomach. The goblins kept laughing at the poor creature's misfortune.

Erik burned with anger. What kind of place allows this kind of cruelty? Erik looked around the ground near him. If he just had something to throw, he could divert the soldiers' attention towards him, instead of the helpless beast. Erik was taller and stronger than those nasty goblins. Those sticks might hurt if they hit him, but so what? Erik was tired of being picked on by the Maze and the King, and seeing someone else having the bad luck to also be suffering just made him feel like delivering some justice of his own.

The beast suddenly howled especially loudly, the sound echoing in the air. It was facing his way, and for a moment, Erik felt those eyes stare straight at him.

Erik turned to look behind him and noticed a good-sized rock lying next to the large hedge. He bent down and picked it up. Carefully taking aim, he threw it hard at the goblin furthest from him, crowing silently in victory as it dented the goblin's metal helmet. The goblin flailed around and accidently jabbed one of his buddies in the ass with the pointy end of his stick.

Erik looked down as the beast let out another howl, and he saw another rock. He repeated his throw and smirked smugly as another goblin got his helmet dented in. By then, all the little goblins were confused and running into each other with their sticks. Erik repeated it twice more before the goblins finally decided to run away. He must have been well hidden, since not one of them looked in his direction.

Waiting for a few minutes, Erik made sure that the area was clear before he ventured out towards the creature. The beast didn't seem to realize yet that the soldiers had left because he growled menacingly at Erik when he got closer to him.

"Now stop that," Erik scolded. "Is that any way to treat someone who's trying to help you?"

The beast stopped growling at him immediately, clearly confused in his new situation.

"No, I thought not," Erik said before slowly reaching out with his hand. He made sure that it was in clear view, so the beast didn't think he was trying anything funny.

"Now, I suspect you want down, right?" Erik asked smoothly as he lightly petted the beast's head.

"…Hank wants down," the beast moaned out and closed its— his eyes.

"Hank, huh? That's your name?" Erik asked conversationally as he walked around the beast to where the rope was. "I hope this isn't a mistake," he mumbled to himself as he unwound the knots keeping the beast up. "Hold on a minute," he called out to the increasingly panicking beast. He finally managed to unwind the ropes, but failed to catch them as they flew out of his hands and dumped the beast onto his back.

"Shit! I'm sorry." Erik rushed over to where the beast laid on the ground, dazed. "Are you all right?" Hank seemed to recover quickly, though, because, not a moment later, he was getting up to his feet. Erik backed away a few feet to give him some room to maneuver.

As soon as Hank was on his feet, he turned his warm brown eyes to Erik.

"Friend?" Hank asked timidly.

Erik smiled at the unsure beast. "Yes, friend. I'm Erik."

"Erik… friend." Hank smiled widely, showing a rather alarming row of sharp teeth.

For a moment, Erik was afraid that Hank would try to hug him, so before it could even cross Hank's mind, Erik spoke, "Hank, I have a question for you if you don't mind." Hank cocked his head to the side to show that he was listening. "I'm trying to get to the castle in the center of the maze. You wouldn't perhaps know the way?" Erik asked hopefully.

To Erik's disappointment, though, Hank shook his head.

Erik sighed, but tried not to feel too disappointed. He looked up and saw the castle in the distance, standing, waiting, while, inside, his children were probably scared and lonely. Turning back to Hank, Erik jumped in surprise.

"Where did they come from?" he asked and walked past Hank towards a pair of doors with faces for knockers. Hank just looked as confused as him. "Which door should we go through Hank?" Erik asked Hank who moved to stand next to him.

Hank looked at the doors and shrugged his big shoulders. Both doors were equal to him. He'd go wherever his new friend wanted to go. Hank didn't have many —if any— friends. But Erik had helped him out, and Hank had a deep-set loyalty to that.

The knocker on the left had its ring in its ear while the knocker on the right had it in its mouth. Suddenly, the left knocker talked, "It's rude to stare you know."

"Ah!" Erik stuttered, surprised and yet, not, at another odd occurrence. "I'm sorry, I was just wondering which door to walk through."

"What?" the knocker asked. The one on the right suddenly began to murmur around the ring in its mouth. Erik moved over to that one and lifted out the ring. He handed it absently to Hank who began to play with it. Despite the blue fur and fangs, the beast was surprisingly like an energetic puppy.

"Oh, thank you. I haven't had that thing removed in so long," the knocker said.

"What were you saying?" Erik asked.

"Oh, I was just saying that it's no use talking to that dumbbell. He's as deaf as a stone."

The other knocker continued to ask them, "What?" as it tried to hear them.

Erik nodded in understanding. "Where do these doors lead to?"

"Don't know," the knocker said, apologetic.

Erik sighed, but nodded all the same. "So how do I go through? You don't have any knobs or handles."

"Use the knockers and the door shall open," the right knocker said importantly.

"Sounds about right." Erik turned back to reclaim the knocker's ring, but stopped short. At first, it was a snort, and then it turned into full blown laughter. Hank had placed the ring inside his own mouth, imitating the knocker. His mouth wasn't wide enough, but it was clearly a clever try. Erik laughed like he hadn't in a long time. It was a good feeling, and he had his newfound friend to thank for that.

"Thanks, Hank," he said as soon as he gained control of his laughter. "I didn't know how much I needed that. Now give it back, please. We need to get going." Hank reluctantly gave back his new toy. Erik took it gratefully and tried to place it back in the knocker's mouth.

"I don't want that back!" the knocker said sternly before locking its lips shut.

"But I want to knock," Erik said, but the knocker stayed stubbornly closed. Erik got clever, though, and pinched its nose. Ten seconds later, the ring was back in the knocker's mouth. Erik knocked while trying to dim down his self-satisfied smirk. He knocked three times, and the door opened.

"Sorry about that," he apologized to the knocker before walking on through. "Come on, Hank," he called out as he suddenly walked into what looked to be a dense forest.

Hank looked uncertain but walked through regardless.

-

Back at the castle, two pairs of eyes opened. It looked like naptime was over.

-

Erik climbed over another tree root.

"This forest is so dense it's like the sky doesn't exist here," he mused out loud as he stared up at where the sky should have been, but only thick branches and leaves were. Hank grunted in agreement. It seemed to Erik that the beast was scared of their surroundings. It was kind of funny in a sad way. Hank was big and could be fierce if he wanted to, but to Erik, he seemed to have the attitude of a puppy. "There's nothing to be scared of Hank," Erik said encouragingly.

Hank shook his head and stated plainly, "Bad place."

Erik raised an eyebrow and looked onto the path before them.

"I don't see anything that's bad—" Erik began and turned around only to stop short when he saw that Hank had disappeared.

"Hank?" Erik called out uncertainly. "Hank?" Louder now. Erik didn't like to be alone there. He hadn't seen what was wrong with the forest when Hank was with him, but now that he was alone, Erik could feel the malice coming from the trees.

“Logan!”

-

Logan continued making his own way back out of the maze. He could distantly hear the human, Erik, call out for someone. Logan stubbornly blocked out the sound until Erik began calling out for him. Logan stopped walking and sighed heavily to himself. He knew he wasn't a good goblin by any standards and in fact had once been a human himself. He couldn't say that he had been any better a person as a man, but at least, then, he had tried. As he turned back around to help the human, he gasped out in alarm.

Charles — The King stood behind him, staring at him with narrow eyes. "And just where do you think you are going?"

Logan stiffened, and he scowled at his King. "You know very well where I'm going. This human doesn't deserve the trials you're putting him through."

"Doesn't deserve? Doesn't deserve?! You know nothing! Humans are greedy, hate-filled creatures! I've watched this one for two years up in the human world, and do you know what I saw? Neglect and ignorance. This man doesn't have any love for his children, and if he seems frantic to reclaim them now, it's only because of some misplaced guilt."

Logan stared at the King impassively. "You know very well that, sometimes, it takes certain circumstances for people to see what is right in front of them. You used to be happy helping people like that."

"That was before!" the King roared. "That was before I saw how cruel and hateful they were!"

"One human, Charles. That was one human among the hundreds that you saved and helped. You should have known that you couldn't have saved them all," Logan rationalized.

The King growled with anger. "It was enough. That human… That monster that dared trick me, that pretended to care about his daughter after he so spitefully wished her away, then begged for her back only to beat her to death not two days later!" the King howled in remembered grief. "I should never have given her back! She had been a sweet child, and you know what? She had asked me so pitifully if she could stay with me instead of returning, and what did I do? I gave her back against her wishes!"

Logan shook his head at his old friend's pain. It had been over a century ago that this had happened and it still affected the King's fragile heart. Maybe Logan and the other members of the guard had sheltered their King too much. Before that horrible human, the King had never known evil or wickedness, so to be confronted with it so suddenly and heavily had been a hard blow for the kind King. He'd hardened his soft heart against anything that could potentially harm him again.

"This isn't the way to go about healing, Charles," Logan said as gently as he could.

"Heal? Why would I want to do that? I think my kingdom is much improved compared to what it was before," the King said with certainty.

Logan winced. He knew that the King believed that, but that was only because everyone was too scared to complain to him nowadays. Before, all the creatures of the maze had gone to the King with any woes or concerns, and no matter the size, the King had helped those who came to him.

Nowadays… not so much.

"If you insist on helping the human, then I'm left with no choice," the King said solemnly, but with wicked intent.

Logan stiffened. "What do you mean?"

"Oh, nothing too bad. I just had the most wonderful idea, actually. Why don't you give this to our dear friend?" the King suddenly tossed a glass bauble. As Logan caught it, it turned into a juicy-looking apple.

"What's this?" Logan asked carefully as he examined the innocent-looking fruit.

"Nothing you have to concern yourself with."

"I won't harm the human, Charles."

The King smirked. "I'm not asking you to. It won't cause the human any harm, just…put him to sleep." Suddenly frowning, the King continued, "As long as you're in the maze, you know you must obey me, Logan."

Logan grunted but nodded slowly. There was a reason why Logan now lived outside of the maze.

The King smirked as he saw Logan give into defeat. Logan just glared at him and turned to walk away toward where Erik was still calling out for help.

"Oh, and Logan?"

Logan turned around.

"If he ever kisses you… I'll make sure that you spend the rest of your days living in the bog of eternal stench!" the King declared before disappearing.

Logan blinked in incredulity, why would the King believe that the human would kiss him? He shook his head and decided to ignore the odd comment from the King.

\--

"Who's there?" Erik demanded as the sounds of giggling and rustling echoed in the trees. Suddenly, strange creatures dropped down from the treetops. They had cream colored bat-like ears and long limbs, while the rest of their body had orange fur, cut like that of a poodle. Erik barely managed to choke back a scream as they surrounded him and began to dance and sing around him. Seriously freaked out, Erik tried to back away, but every time he tried, they would surround him again and push him back into the clearing. Abruptly during their song, they began to take off their legs, arms, and their heads, using them as instruments and playing with them. Erik winced in disgust at the display.

It was only as they tried to take off his head that he felt fear, though.

"Stop it!" he yelled before yanking off the heads of the surrounding creatures, throwing them into the dense forest, and then running off in the other direction. They didn’t seem to like that as they began to chase after him to try to yank off his head and arms and all manner of other parts that were firmly attached to him. Erik ran as fast as he could, trying to find some way out, but all he saw was more forest.

As he grew tired, he found himself in front of a grand stone wall.

"No, no, no," he mumbled frantically as he tried to find some other escape route. But the creatures were right behind him. As Erik was just about to give in to his fate of dismemberment, a rope suddenly dropped down in front of him. He looked up and smiled widely. "Logan!"

"Hurry up and grab on!" Logan shouted from the top. Erik grabbed the rope and began to climb and not a moment too soon as the creatures began tugging on his clothes. When he got to the top, Logan helped pull him onto the ledge. Erik shakily got to his feet, but once he did, he beamed at Logan.

"You came back! Thank you!" he said and planted a small thank you kiss on the man's cheek. Logan was too startled to stop him, but once he realized what Erik had done he backed away.

"Wait, no—!" But it was already too late. A trap door opened up beneath them, dropping them into a sliding tunnel.

As they fell out of an opening, Erik grabbed onto a root to stop his fall while Logan who was ahead of him grabbed a bar sticking out of the stone. It was good that they both managed to grab onto something because not ten feet below them was a thick swamp filled with the most disgusting smells.

"Oh, God… What is that stench!?" Erik coughed as the most horrible smells burned into his nose.

"Doesn't matter! It's the bog of eternal stench! Now help me up!" Logan bit out.

Erik managed to get his feet under him and stood shakily on a small ledge. He bent down and tried to help Logan up as well.

"Here, grab my hand," Erik said.

Logan let go with one of his hands, and Erik grabbed hold tightly and pulled him up next to him.

"Why did you have to do that!?" Logan growled at Erik as they both inched their way along the wall.

"Do what?" Erik asked absently as he looked for a good place to climb down.

"Kiss me!" Logan bemoaned.

Erik frowned at his friend. "Sorry, are you homophobic or something?"

"What? No! I'm just saying you can't go around kissing people like that! It wouldn't make a lick of difference if you'd been a girl," Logan shot back.

Before Erik could respond, though, Logan stepped on a loose stone and slipped from the ledge. As he fell, Erik tried to grab him, but ended up falling with him as he too lost his balance. Luckily for them, they had already gotten closer to solid ground. Erik braced himself for a hard landing, but bounced off something furry instead.

"Hank!" Erik called out joyfully as he slipped off his back. Rising to his feet, Erik looked around for Logan, but couldn't see him. "Where's Logan?"

"Meemp!"

Underneath Hank, apparently.

"Hank, get up!" Erik ordered. Hank got up obediently, and Logan scrambled away.

"Damn it! What were you trying to do, suffocate me!?" he yelled out angrily, but stopped speaking as he caught sight of Hank.

"It's all right; Logan's a friend as well." Erik reassured.

"Smells bad!" Hank moaned out, and that's when Erik noticed the smell again.

"Oh, God, you're right. That's really bad," Erik sympathized and held up a hand to cover his nose.

Logan did the same thing.

"Let's get out of here," Logan demanded.

Erik looked around and spotted a bridge. "Let's go that way."

As they made their way across the bog, the smell steadily began to get worse. "Be careful. If you set so much as stick a toe in, you'll stink this bad even after you're dead," Logan warned the two of them as they walked. Soon enough, the bridge was right in front of them, and it seemed to lead straight out of the bog too.

"Come on," Erik directed and tried to cross.

"I think not, sir!" a voice suddenly echoed around them, and a blue skinned woman jumped out in front of Erik, blocking the path out of the bog.

Erik jumped back in surprise, but it was a testament to his time there that he was able to adapt quickly to the suddenness of a challenge. "Please, we need to cross."

"No one may cross without my express permission."

Erik frowned worriedly. "I only have a little time left. Please let us cross!"

"I'm sorry, sir, but I have sworn on my life that I won't let anyone pass without my saying so!"

Logan growled in annoyance. "Oh, let us pass already, you blue hussy!"

The woman glared at him. "I am appalled at your language and ill manner! You, sir, are a brute!"

"Tell me something I don't know, girly. Now, let us pass!" Logan tried to push his way past her, but apparently that was a mistake as, before Erik could blink, she had pounced on him and knocked him onto his back!

The woman got up from her defensive crouch. "That will teach you, you brute!"

Erik let out an impressive whistle, but Hank bristled at the challenge presented before him. He took a step forward and the woman jumped at him.

"You can't pass!"

"Hank wants through!"

As Erik watched, fascinated, as the woman proceeded to kick his other friend's butt, Logan made a quick dash across the bridge and around a corner.

"Logan!" Erik called after him. Yet again, his friend had gone ahead of him and left him to deal with everything.

The woman was doubly mad now, but Hank held his ground.

"Enough!" the woman suddenly shouted, and Hank froze in place. "I've only ever fought one person in my life as noble as you, sir. Let us cease this fight and be siblings from now on, since I married the first one." The woman smiled brightly at Hank's confused face.

Erik watched bemusedly as Hank and the woman shook hands. "My name is Raven, and what pray tell are your names?"

"I'm Erik, and this is Hank."

"Sir Erik and Sir Hank, it is an honor to meet you." Raven curtsied.

"You too. Let's go, Hank." Erik tried to cross the bridge, but Raven stopped him again.

"I'm sorry, sir, but I still have an oath," she said apologetic.

Erik stopped the groan of frustration before he voiced it while Hank moaned about the smell. "Fine, let's think about this logically. What exactly have you sworn?"

"I've sworn on the memory of my forefathers and mothers before me that none shall cross this bridge without my permission."

"…Then may we have your permission?"

It was almost comical how wide Raven's eyes got.

"Umm— Well… I— Yes?" she said. Obviously, it had never occurred to her that someone would actually ask for her permission.

"Good, let's go," Erik said determinedly and walked to the bridge. It was a rickety plank of wood that looked very old. Erik swallowed unsurely before walking across slowly.

"Don't worry, sir. This bridge has lasted hundreds of years," Raven called out and patted the stone that the plank of wood was stationed on, one pat, and it crumbled into dust.

"Ah!" Erik cried out as the bridge began to shake and fall apart. Looking up, he saw a branch above him, and he grabbed on just as the bridge fell apart beneath him. "Help!" he yelled out, scared beyond belief as the branched dropped him closer to the bog waters below.

Logan came running from around the bend on the other side. His eyes widened comically as he took in the scene.

"We'll save you… somehow," Raven said uncertainly from her side of the bog. Erik felt no shame in screaming out for help at the moment. Hank began to howl loudly. "Hank! This is no time to grieve and howl when he still needs our help," Raven scolded him.

Hank ignored her and continued to howl out. A second later, a large boulder began to roll down the hill and into the bog. It kept rolling until it reached the spot underneath Erik. Erik saw it and let go of the breaking branch. The stone was solid and held his weight.

"You can call up the rocks?!" Raven asked Hank, astonished. Hank continued to howl and soon large rocks rose up from the bog and created a bridge. Erik smiled gratefully at his friend and crossed to the other side.

Hank stopped howling as the rocks finished rising.

"Rocks are friends. They help whenever Hank asks," Hank explained to Raven as he crossed as well to where Erik and Logan waited for him.

"Huh, well, aren't you all kinds of amazing, my noble friend?" Raven grinned and turned around. "Azazel? Honey? You can come out now. We're going as well." A red-skinned man with a pointed tail suddenly walked out from behind a tree. He looked at them all coolly before crossing as well. "This is my husband, Azazel. He was the first person to prove himself my equal in battle. Azazel, Hank here also just proved himself." Raven introduced them. Azazel stared at Hank blankly, and Hank just shuffled his feet and tried to stay behind Erik.

"Well, that's all good, but let's get out of this smell," Erik said, and everyone agreed with him.

\--

The King stared without blinking and two pairs of eyes stared back. This went on for a while before one pair of eyes suddenly blinked.

"Ha!" the King cheered. "I win!"

Wanda turned to her brother and glared. "You made us lose."

Pietro whined. "I'm sorry! My eyes were drying up."

Wanda just huffed, annoyed at losing, but turned back to the King.

"What game should we play now?" she asked.

The King sat back in his throne in thought. He hadn't meant for the children to wake up while their father was in the maze, but they had a glimmer of power of their own and broke through his enchantment. When they had woken up, they had of course panicked a little. Well, Pietro had cried, and his sister beat up the goblin soldiers he had stationed to watch them for making her brother cry.

After that, the King had decided it would be best if he watched them if only so he wouldn't have to hear any more whining from his subjects. They hadn't yet asked about their father or why they were here instead of back home. The King couldn't decide if the kids were playing stupid or were that confident of their safety.

"Hey, let's play I Spy!" Pietro suddenly exclaimed. His sister agreed with a smile, and they both looked up at the King with hopeful eyes.

The King couldn't help the smile that warmed his face as he stared down at them. They were really bright children. If only Erik had taken the time to see that before it had been too late. Soon, Erik wouldn't remember anything of his children… anything at all.

-

"So hungry," Hank moaned, and the rest of them agreed.

"But we can't stop now," Erik said sadly as they walked through another dense forest in the direction of the castle.

Logan lagged behind the rest of the group. His hand alternated between squeezing and rotating the small apple that Charles had given him to give to Erik. He didn't want to give it to Erik —who knew what it would do to the human— but he didn't see what choice he had.

"Erik?" Logan called out, his voice shaking a little, but none of the others heard it.

"Yes?" Erik turned around, and his eyes widened with delight when he saw the small piece of fruit that Logan was offering him.

"This is for you…"

"Thank you, Logan! This looks great!" Erik grabbed the apple and smiled softly at his friend. Logan just shuffled his feet and turned his face away.

Erik bit down and swallowed the crisp flesh of the apple. Erik's smile began to fade as he instantly felt odd, he could tell the fruit had done something to him.

"I feel strange… Logan, what have you done?" Erik asked wretchedly as he swayed on his feet.

"Damn Charles!" Logan growled out miserably, "and damn me as well."

Logan turned around and ran off in another direction, not wanting to stay another second to see what damage he had done to the human.

Erik stumbled on his feet for a minute before sliding bonelessly to the ground.

"Everything's dancing…" he said softly as bubbles floated in front of him and his vision became hazy.

One of the bubbles came closer to him, and somehow, he could see himself inside the bubble, dressed in a velvet tunic fit for royalty

 _And then, he wasn't just seeing it, but living it. Everything was hazy, and Erik couldn't think straight. He was in some kind of ballroom, with tables and chairs, and a dance floor filled with people in costumes and masks. Dancing— All dancing and laughing and twirling and giggling and swinging…_

 _He glided on the floor, looking for something and yet not knowing what he was searching for. He caught a glimpse of a man who was standing still. His mask came off, and Erik was mesmerized by the ethereal beauty of the man, but when a dancing couple passed between them, the man disappeared. Erik strained his neck to see where the ethereal man had gone but he couldn't catch sight of him._

 _Erik moved around the room, hoping to see him again. The music tempo caused his limbs to feel heavy and yet floaty at the same time. Erik didn't question it though, as far as he knew, this ballroom was the only thing in his life, the dancing and the laughter and the hazy whiteness at the edge of his sight._

 _He caught another glimpse of the man before the crowd blocked his view again. Erik didn't worry, though. They had all the time in the world to find each other. Erik turned in place, looking into the masked eyes of the dancers around him, but none of them were the bright blue he was looking for._

 _He turned around again and gasped silently as the man he'd been searching for stood in front of him. Smiling softly at Erik, he grasped his hands, and they danced slowly on the floor. The man lead while he followed; twirling and swaying with the dance. Erik stared into the man's eyes, enthralled both with the magic of the place and the man in front of him. His heart beat frantically, and he closed his eyes as it became almost too much. He could feel the man's hold tighten and Erik leaned into the man's embrace. It felt right —like nothing else could matter but the two of them, here, dancing for eternity together._

 _He opened his eyes again as they twirled across the floor. Only then did he notice that all the other dancers had stopped dancing and were instead crowding around them, laughing and jeering. Erik hunched his shoulders, uncomfortable with the stares. As his eyes rolled off the man's face and passed the jeering dancers, he caught sight of a clock._

 _One hour till twelve… Erik panicked. He didn't know why, but he pushed himself out of the man's warm embrace and out of the ring of dancers. He ignored the man's disappointed look; it hurt to look at it, but somehow, he knew that he couldn't return to the man's embrace, not now and possibly not ever._

 _He continued to run through the crowd. The dancers tried to stop him by yanking on his arms or clothing, but he continued to push past them until he finally got to one of the mirrored walls. Looking around, he saw a table nearby and picked up a chair. Holding it above his head, he smashed the mirror. Instantly, everyone began to fly around as if gravity was non-existent._

 _The illusion was shattered._

Erik glided through the air, his clothes were back to normal, but the haze was still present. He finally landed on a heap of garbage.

"Oww," he whined as a piece of wire poked him sharply in the back. Feeling something in his hand, he looked at what he was holding: a bitten apple with a green worm crawling through it. "Oh, that's disgusting!" he groaned and threw it as hard as he could away from him.

As he stood up, his hand pushing against a smaller pile of garbage for leverage.

"Hey! Watch where you're grabbing!" The garbage pile moved and turned around. A small, squished goblin squinted up at him.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Erik apologized and stared around with mist-covered eyes. "I was… looking for something."

"Hmm? Oh, well, what were you looking for?" A devious glint burned brightly in the goblin's eyes.

"I— don't remember," Erik said, distressed.

"How about this? This was what you were looking for wasn't it." The goblin handed him an old tin soldier. It was the same tin soldier that his mother and father had given him on his fifth birthday. He hadn't seen it in years.

He hugged it close to his chest. "Yes, thank you."

The goblin directed him to where a door was hidden in the large pile of garbage. "Why don't you see if there's anything else you're looking for?"

Erik walked in obediently, and suddenly, he was back in his study. He smiled warmly at his favorite chair and threw himself into it, cuddling deeply into its plush cushions.

"It was all a dream," Erik whispered to himself. He stared down at the same toy in his hands. How he’d missed it. “Well, I suppose I should head to bed then. It’s pretty late, and I have no idea why, but I feel so exhausted.”

Erik walked over to his study door, but before he could open it, it opened from the outside. The trash goblin from the dream walked in and pushed past him into the room.

Erik clung to the small metal toy in his hands. Not a dream… but he was still forgetting something. He could feel it in the back of his mind, buzzing to attention. Erik slowly followed the goblin back into the room, he slowly at in his chair while the goblin brought him all his things.

"Oh, look, it's your old thesis. You missed that, didn't you? Oh, and here's your father's pocket watch."

"There was something I was looking for," Erik whispered, his eyebrows furred in thought. He was trying to get past the fog in his head, he didn't know why, but he felt like it was important that he get past it and remember something.

As the goblin continued to pile things on him, Erik looked down and noticed a small red book on the windowsill. He reached out and picked it up, opening it to read.

"—through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered, I have fought my way here to the castle, beyond the goblin city… to take back the children you have stolen…"

The goblin tried to get his attention. "Here, don't you like your stuff? Everything you have ever cared about is right here."

Erik's eyes widened in realization. "It's all junk, all of it!"

Suddenly, the ceilings and walls began to crumble. Erik jumped to his feet, scattering his things to the floor, forgotten now that his memory had returned. His children were still waiting for him at the castle, and he didn't have much time left to save them.

"Erik!" The sound of his name being called from beyond the garbage caught his attention. Ignoring the moaning goblin behind him, he climbed out of the trashed room. Hank and Raven helped pull him out while Azazel made sure that the other trash goblins stayed far away.

"Oh, thank goodness we found you, Sir Erik! Look the castle is close by." Raven pointed and Erik saw that the castle walls were only a few feet away.

"Come on, then. Let's go!" Erik said and practically ran to the doorway, Hank and the rest of the rag tag gang quickly following after. The gate was rather small in size, and the goblin set to guard it was fast asleep. Erik and Hank silently crept up to the door and opened it.

Raven had other plans.

"Wake up! I will fight you all to the death!" Raven cried a rather Amazonian battle call.

"Raven, hush!" Erik hissed at her. Azazel smirked at him and walked up to his wife who was kicking repeatedly at the sleeping guard. Azazel walked up behind her and whispered into her ear. Erik didn't hear what he said to her, but gathering from the way her blue skin turned purple, he figured it was something he was better off not knowing. Raven was a lot quieter as they all walked through the gates.

"That seemed a little too easy," Erik said, suspicious, just before the small doors behind them slammed shut and sword pikes sprang up from the ground, blocking their retreat. The entrance to the goblin city began to disappear as a previously hidden gate closed in front of them. A rather large metal robot that was situated on the gate suddenly came to life.

"Who goes there?" it growled loudly as it moved towards them, a sharp looking axe in its hands.

"Oh, for the love of—" Erik groaned out and threw himself to the side as the robot tried to hit them. Hank and Erik dodged to one side while Raven and Azazel, to the other. The robot didn't seem to care that they were scattered as it attempted to slice them all up.

"What do we do?" Erik yelled out while Raven and Azazel began kicking at the metal knees. It didn't seem to have much effect, though.

Erik looked above the robot and saw Logan walking on the battlements towards them.

"Logan!" Erik shouted with surprise. Logan didn't acknowledge him, but threw himself with a loud growl onto the helmet of the robot. He yanked the head off and threw the small goblin controlling the suit out. "Be careful!" Erik shouted as Logan tried to control the suit only to hit the self destruct. "Get out of there!"

Logan gave the controls a disgusted look and jumped to the ground, just as the cockpit went into flames. Erik and the others rushed to him.

"Are you all right?" Erik asked worriedly as Hank and Azazel helped Logan to his feet. Logan shrugged off their help, though, and looked straight at Erik with a serious expression.

"I won't apologize, and I don't expect to be forgiven for what I've done. You can't really understand the magic of this place. As long as one lives in the maze, then you are duty bound to obey the King. I didn't want to, but Charles ordered me to give you that apple. I understand if you don't want anything more to do with me. I just felt I owed you at least this much."

Erik stared at Logan for a moment before smiling. "I forgive you Logan, after all, isn't that's what friends do?"

"Friends?" Logan asked surprised.

"Yes, we're all friends. Right?" Erik asked the others.

"Of course! That was one of the bravest things I've ever seen! You, sir, are a valiant knight," Raven gushed and Azazel nodded in agreement.

Hank reached out one hand and placed it on Logan's shoulder. "Friend."

Logan was silent for a moment before he smiled ruefully at them. "Well, then, what are we sitting around here for? Let's go kick some sense into Charles's head!"

"Yeah!" they all shouted together and walked over to the gate, pushed at once, and the gate opened to the goblin city.

"Just a little longer, babies. Daddy's coming," Erik whispered to himself as he gazed up at the castle in front of them, just a little further.

“Wait, who’s Charles again?” Raven asked, earning a frustrated groan from Logan.

\--

"Your highness! Your highness!" a goblin solider yelled frantically as he ran to the throne room.

Wanda and Pietro looked up from the King's lap where the King had been reading them a story.

"What is it?" The King frowned, annoyed at being interrupted.

"It's the human!"

"What about him?" the King asked, irritation clear in his voice.

"He's here! In the city with all the other misfits! They're practically at our doorstep."

"What?!" the King shouted and dropped the book. He stood up quickly and handed the children off to two of the soldiers. "Hide the children and stop him! Don't let him get any further!" he roared to the frantic goblins. "He must be stopped! Hurry! Stop him!" The King felt frantic, and he couldn't decide if it was fear, anger, or something else that caused his breath to catch and his heart beat to speed up.

\--

"I think we're going to make it," Erik said hopefully as they got closer to the castle gates. The stairs leading up to it were right in front of them. Surprisingly, the goblin city itself had been quiet, and they hadn't met a single goblin on their trek through.

As soon as he said that, though, an army of goblins suddenly popped up from behind stone walls and buildings.

"Oh, sh—!"

"Charge!" the goblins yelled out.

"Run for it!" Erik shouted and turned around to run. The others quickly fell in behind him while Azazel had to drag Raven away.

"Why are we running!? The battle is the other way!" she cried out as Azazel got tired of her dragging her feet and flipped her onto his back.

"Omph! Husband, what are you doing?!" she screamed out as they all booked it to safer ground. They all ran up and down the streets, avoiding as many as the guards as they could.

As Erik turned down a street, one of the goblins who was furnished with a cannon shot at them, missing them by only a few feet and hitting the goblins behind them.

"In here!" he shouted and walked into one of the buildings. Logan and Hank followed him, but they had lost Azazel and Raven in the chaos.

The goblins, though, had spotted them entering and now surrounded the house. As they began to beat on the fragile walls, Hank walked up the ladder inside and got out onto the roof.

"Hank! Call the rocks!" Erik shouted as Logan and he began to defend their small space with the chairs and cookware. Hank began to howl into the air, calling his rock friends for reinforcement.

As they defended themselves, Azazel continued to run through the streets. He managed to get as far as the gates before Raven had enough.

"Honey, if you don't stop and put me down this instant, I'm never sleeping with you again!"

Azazel instantly stopped running and dropped her to the ground.

Raven dusted herself and sniffed indignantly.

"Thank you. Now, let's fight to the death! Charge!" She suddenly ran into the surrounding crowd of goblins and bowled them over. Azazel gave a long suffering sigh, and followed.

But, just as the goblins were about to try dog piling Raven, the heavy sounds of rocks filled the air. After another moment, the streets were filled with rolling rocks, which knocked continuously into the goblins.

"YES!" Erik shouted in victory as he saw that the goblins were on the run. They left the small house and made their way back towards the castle. The rocks seemed to move out of their way and head only for the goblins, leaving their path clear.

"Raven, Azazel!" Erik called out as they made it to the steps.

"Coming!" Raven shouted from nearby.

Erik ran up the steps and pushed open the doors of the castle. They were confronted with three hallways. Erik looked in all directions quickly and chose one.

"This way!" he called and ran down the corridor that would hopefully lead to the throne room, the others following quickly.

Erik burst into the throne room, ready and able to start a physical fight if he had to, but it was all for naught. The room was empty. All the goblins had cleared out, and the Goblin King was nowhere to be seen, and neither were the children. Erik turned around in place in despair and stopped when he caught sight of the large clock that would give him nightmares for years to come.

Three minutes to twelve.

"Damn it!" Erik yelled. Looking around, he saw only one place they could have gone off to: a winding stair case that lead upwards.

"They must have gone through there."

"Then, what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Logan declared, and the rest of them agreed.

Erik stepped in front of them before they could take another step forward.

"No, I have to face him alone," Erik stated wearily.

"But why?" Raven asked, and the rest of them nodded, confused as well.

"Because that's just how it's done. The King might not play by the rules, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't," Erik said humorless.

Logan sighed. "Well, if you're sure. We won't stop you. Just remember: if you need us…"

"Yes… If you need us," Raven said worriedly.

Erik smiled at his friends. He would miss them terribly when he went back home. He didn't have many associates that he could call friends. None of the humans he knew back home would have ever helped him out like these guys did.

"I'll call, thank you. All of you— so much," Erik babbled for a moment before giving them one last smile. He hoped that he came off as confident, but he didn't have much hope left.

He was scared, so scared.

Erik ran up the steps. He couldn't look back because if he did, he knew that he would ask his friends for the help, regardless of the consequences. Because truthfully? He didn't want to do this alone. He'd been alone for so long that it felt wonderful to have people who were willing to help him because they liked him, because they cared about him and his children.

But he knew that he would need to do this himself to show everyone, including himself, that he could be a good father.

He finally made it up to the top of the staircase and stopped. The room seemed to be endless. Hundreds of staircases filled the area, some going up, others down, some sideways and longways… Erik felt dizzy just looking at it all.

"Daddy!" a small voice echoed.

Erik's head snapped towards the call. "Wanda!"

He could see them, both of them. They were sitting on some steps, upside down.

"I'm coming! Stay there!" He called out and ran into the room, trying to find the best way up to them. He came to a ledge, still too far from the children who were once again not listening to him. Wanda was leading her brother by the hand down the steps and through an archway.

"Pietro! Wanda!" Erik shouted in dismay as they left his sight, only to breathe a sigh of relief when he saw them come out of a different archway a few staircases down. Looking down, he was suddenly confronted by the Goblin King who was standing on the bottom of the ledge.

"Look at you, you precious thing," he sighed at him and took a step forward, and suddenly, Erik was standing chest to chest to the King.

Blushing heavily, Erik jumped back.

"Give them back!" he shouted.

The King smirked at him and suddenly disappeared, like he was made up of nothing but smoke. Erik looked around wildly for a moment before dismissing it. The King was only trying to distract him from his goal, and Erik wouldn't let him.

He ran down a few steps, the children always in his sight, but just out of his reach. No matter how many times he begged them to stay still Wanda and Pietro ignored him and wandered around, giggling as if this was all some great game, and maybe to them, it was, but Erik knew better. He only had a short amount of time left, and he needed to catch them before the clock chimed.

As he walked through another archway, he was confronted with the King again. He was leaning against a wall, staring up absently.

"Everything I've done, I've done for you," the King said with venom, but even with the obvious anger in his voice, Erik could hear traces of hurt and confusion. "And I move the stars for no one." He turned to glare at Erik before melting into the stone behind him.

Erik wanted to analyze just what the King was saying, but he suddenly heard Pietro squeal in laughter. Shaking his head, he continued running. He had to find a way to them, he just had to!

-

"Your eyes can be so cruel," the King sang softly to himself, he was sitting on one of the staircases and had the perfect view of both Erik and the children. He closed his eyes and tried to block out the sounds of Erik calling his children's names and the squeals of happy laughter from the children.

"…just as I can be so cruel," he whispered to himself, self-hatred filling his words.

He opened his eyes and forced himself to watch Erik run uselessly after his children. He would never catch them, of course. The children he was seeing were only illusions he had created. The real children were sleeping peacefully in his chambers, the only place in the castle that was still comfortable to live in.

It had been easy before to watch from a distance as Erik struggled through the maze. It had helped that he had spent the last two years watching this human man go through his daily life, how he ignored his children and hated his job and was bitter toward all those who knew him.

He hadn't been there when the twins had been born, and he had no clue on where their mother was. There could be a reason why Erik had been so cold to his children, but Charles didn't care about that. All he cared about was seeing that no more children suffered at the hands of their parents.

It helped fuel his rage and twisted sense of justice. If the family didn't want the children, then why shouldn't he keep them? He'd be a better parent than them at least. Erik was the first human to undergo the trials since… Charles had changed.

Charles tried to keep his heart as cold as possible, but… one of the reasons why Charles had begun to watch Erik in the first place was because of how utterly beautiful the man was. It was only after a few days of watching the single father of two that he'd seen how much he neglected his children. He had been disgusted with himself for feeling attracted to a human, even though, years ago, he wouldn't have cared one wit about that. That was before he had learned how cruel they could be, how monstrous they acted toward their young.

So Charles continued to watch the human and his offspring for years, burying his attraction to the human and fueling it with hatred instead.

But Charles couldn't lie to himself —at least, not well. Erik had captured his heart long ago when Charles had been out and about in the human world, looking for some idiot who wanted his child gone and had seen a shadow move in a lit room. Since it was well into the early morning hours, Charles had been curious and had gone to investigate.

He hadn't expected to see an attractive young man reading by the window, his body cushioned by a soft lounge chair, nor had he expected the book that he was reading to be the one based on his kingdom. That book was extremely rare and had been written by a human hundreds of years ago as a gift to him. He hadn't even known that any copies still existed, except for the one in his royal library.

He had perched there on the windowsill and watched for hours as the man sat there calmly and read the book cover to cover. Charles could tell that it wasn't the first time the man had read it; he would mouth the words before he even got to the paragraph they were on.

It was… endearing, and Charles was horrified to find his icy heart melting with affection. He had fled then, but had only been able to stay away for a short while before finding himself once again on that windowsill, watching the human read about his world. The time had come, though, when Erik had spoken the words that Charles had been both hoping and dreading to hear.

Erik had wished his children away.

So Charles had taken them, and when Erik had begged for them back, he had held firm. But even so…

"WANDA! PIETRO!" Erik shouted out in anguish as they continued to elude him.

Charles flinched as he turned his gaze back to what was happening in front of him.

"Live without your sunlight, live without your heart beating… I— I can't live within you…" Charles whispered in pain as he continued to watch Erik run around.

Suddenly, Erik was standing on a ledge just above the illusions. Charles watched amazed as the human braced himself and jumped without a care for himself.

Charles quickly reached out and twisted the illusion so that Erik landed on a platform, instead of falling to his death.

-

Erik fell through the air, weightless for a moment before he was gently let down. He looked around, but there was only the small platform he was on and floating pieces of stone. Once again, everything was hazy, just like in the bubble dream. Hearing something behind him, he turned around and stood his ground as the King detached himself from the shadows.

"Give me the children," Erik said calmly.

"Be careful, Erik. Up till now, I've been far too generous to you. I can be much crueler."

"Generous?!" Erik asked in surprise and incredulity. "Just when were you generous?"

"This whole time!" the King shouted suddenly. "I've turned this whole world upside down and inside out, and I did it all for you."

"Explain that to me," Erik asked, and the King looked at him suspiciously for the sarcasm that surely had to be present, but Erik was serious. The King paused in confusion. He hadn't expected Erik to want to hear him out. He had thought that Erik would only want to shout at him and say the dreaded words that would make everything Charles had done disappear.

"I— I—" the King stuttered for a moment before gathering his bearings. "You asked for the children to be taken; I took them. You begged for them back, and I gave you a chance. I've been more generous than you have any right to expect. You humans are all the same. Even if you did get them back, you'd just go back to treating them like you did before, neglecting them and silently hating them."

"I never hated them," Erik whispered, the flinch that he was unable to hide spoke the truth though.

"YES, YOU DID! I saw you! You ignored them and didn't play with them and always let someone else watch them when you wanted to go out, which was always. You never made them snacks or hugged them or told them you loved them. You didn't do the million things a father should have done!"

"I know!" Erik shouted back at him suddenly. "Don't you think I know this!? I know I'm not a perfect father, and I don't expect I'll ever be! But still— I know that I resented them because they had come into my world so unexpectedly; I know I was acting like a spoiled child. But I have never, ever hated them! I just didn't know how to deal with them. I… didn't have the best childhood growing up, and I'm not excusing myself or anything, but I don't know how to treat them. I thought if I just left them alone, they would be okay. Why would they need me after all? I'm the fucked-up father who's lived a fucked-up life and who never expected to take care of other human beings when he couldn't even take care of himself." Erik was breathing heavily at this point. "I know I have a temper, a really bad one. It got me into more than one fight growing up, and I don't— I don't want my children to be subjected to it, so if I ignore them, it's only because I'm afraid that one day I might end up saying something nonreversible!"

"Then why do you want them back?! Why take the chance?" the King barked back, dizzy with the new information that was given to him.

"Because they are my children and I love them!" Erik screamed.

The King took a several steps back and shook his head, confusion and bewilderment clear on his face.

"I—" he sputtered, but stopped because he didn't know what to say to that.

"Give me back the children, Charles," Erik ordered firmly.

"No— I… Stop it!" Charles roared suddenly, frustrated with how this was going.

"Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered, I have fought my way to the castle, beyond the goblin city—" Erik began, a sad glint in his eyes as he saw the panic grow on Charles face.

"Stop!" Charles ordered. "Here, look at this." He held up one of his glass baubles. "All your dreams are inside of here. Just take it and forget. Live the life you wanted before they came into it."

Erik's eyes didn't even flicker as he stared at Charles's face. "—for my will is as strong as yours and my kingdom as great."

"Wait, please," Charles suddenly begged, his cold composure lost and his heart beating a mile per second. "I ask for little. Just…stay with me."

Erik stopped walking forward. Without either man realizing, Erik had been advancing on Charles, and Charles had been backing away, always keeping just the right amount of space between them.

"What?" Erik asked baffled at the sudden change.

Charles hesitated for a minute and then threw caution to the wind; he had very little to lose now. If Erik finished those words, he and the children would be lost to Charles forever, and he found he didn't want any of them to go. He had enjoyed the children's company, and he might…have some intimate feelings towards with Erik… he just had to admit to it.

"Just stay here with me, you and the children. I w— want you to stay here with us."

Erik frowned. "Us?"

"Us, the goblins and the maze. The castle and me. Don't— Don't return to the other world."

Erik gazed at him, frowning with confusion. His mouth opened and shut several times, uncertain on what to say. Charles threw the bauble over the edge to show that wasn't what he was offering anymore.

"If you finish the words, then I will return you and the children to the human world, and you will never see me or anyone else from this realm for the rest of your life. We will leave you alone as promised. What I'm asking now is—“ Charles paused, his voice faltering for a second before asking, “Will you marry me?"

Erik was openly gapping now, shocked at Charles’ bluntness.

"Isn't this kind of sudden?" he finally asked as soon as he regained his voice.

Charles shrugged and sighed, the fight seemed to go out of him, as if exhaustion had finally caught up to him. "Probably, I've been watching you for a while, even before you spoke the words and wished your children to my world. I never expected anything to come of it, just that you were interesting for a human so I would watch you from afar. Then when I saw Wanda and Pietro, I saw an opportunity present itself. I did want the children out of your care, you weren't acting like a parent, and I thought I could do better, but I have to confess that I may have had ulterior motives as well. I never expected you to get this far into the maze. I thought I would win, and you'd be stuck here forever, and… I could court you then."

Erik sighed wearily then suddenly began to laugh in incredulity. "I can see you doing that. But before I give you my answer, I need to know something. Everyone keeps mentioning that you've changed, that you haven't always been cruel. What happened?"

Charles squeezed his eyes shut and spoke through clenched teeth. He supposed Erik had a right to know the truth.

"I used to do this a lot for other humans as well, but the maze wasn't as tough, and I always expected the humans to confront me for their children and take them back to the human world to raise them properly with love and care. After all, faced with the loss of your child, why wouldn't you be more protective and loving?"

"There was this one human, a widowed father with a single child, a daughter. She was only two years old. I don't have any idea how the mother died or if she had just left, but as far as I knew, only the father and daughter lived in the house. The father was neglectful like you, but took it to the extreme. He would fail to feed her or bathe her and leave her screaming in her room for hours on end. So when he said that he wished that the child was gone, I took her and gave the father the trial. I should have known that he wouldn't want her back. He hadn't once asked me for her, but I was blind to his obvious faults, which even my subjects warned me about. It didn't take the man long to get through my maze and I gave back the child once the man entered my castle. The girl barely knew how to speak, but before I handed her back, she cried and begged to stay with me. I was surprised by it, but I still gave her back."

"What happened?" Erik asked softly, although by the look in his eyes, he already knew.

"Two days afterwards, the father had beaten his daughter to death in a drunken rage." Tears were flowing down the King's face as he recalled the horror he had felt when he had gone to check on them.

"I'm sorry," Erik apologized gently before reaching out and wiping the fallen tears away.

"Well, now, you know," Charles said briskly and stepped back. Erik's hand stayed in the air for a moment more before he dropped it.

"You have ten seconds left on the clock. Make your decision," Charles said as coldly as he could, even with the tear tracks still drying on his face.

Erik looked at the clock that appeared next to them. The King was correct; he had mere seconds to make up his mind. As Erik stared up at the King with drying tear tracks and conflicted eyes, he made up his mind. It was one of the easiest decisions he had ever made.

With just three seconds left, Erik walked forward and kissed the King.

Sealing his fate and the fate of his children.

\--

~Epilogue~

 

"Cheers! To the King and his Consort! To the children! Cheers!" Shouts of joy and happiness echoed in the large chamber. Erik smiled widely as Wanda and Pietro held onto his hands and stared at the huge crowd in front of them with wide eyes.

After Erik and made his decision, things had changed quickly. All the dirt and grime that filled the castle and surrounding area had disappeared, and everything was beautiful and clean-looking. The goblins had changed as well; they weren't small and squinty, but took on more human qualities. There were even little birds flying around and chirping happy songs. It was all so Disney that Erik felt momentarily scared.

When Erik had first taken a look outside and seen everything changed, he had turned to his fiancé and raised an amused eyebrow.

"I'm sorry, but when did this turn into Beauty and the Beast?" Erik felt warm and happy as the King laughed with carefree abandon at his dry wit.

Everyone in the maze was privy to what had happened of course. How could they not when the Maze returned itself to its former glory? It seemed the state of the Maze was tied to Charles's mood, and since Erik planned on Charles being happy for a long time to come, the Maze would never return to the rundown dump it had become over a hundred years ago.

Erik and Charles had all but run to the King's chambers to wake the children and tell them that they were staying. They took it all surprisingly well. To tell the truth, Erik had been anxious about how they would react to them leaving home and everyone they knew in the human world and moving to the Goblin City where their papa was marrying a man and a king. But they had been happy that they were all staying in the castle. They told him how Charles had played with them and was really nice and how they liked the goblins now that they weren't so scary looking and could they please go hang on Hank's fur while he swishes them around?

Erik had let them go play with minimal fuss. He didn't like letting them out of his sight right then, but he knew better then to smother them. They were smart, even at this age, and wouldn't appreciate Erik hovering over them constantly.

Charles murmured to him and held him when he felt Erik's distress at how utterly useless he was. He warned Erik that it would take hard work and not a few years to get the children's trust and open love. Erik agreed reluctantly because Charles was right. Even if they were only five, Wanda and Pietro had practically raised themselves, and it would take some getting used to on all fronts for them to bond as a family.

When they had all gone into the throne room, they had been surprised to see a large group of citizens, including Erik's friends, with party favors and food. Apparently, the wedding was going to happen sooner than anyone had thought, but no one minded.

As Erik got to know Charles, now that the King wasn't trying to harden his heart, he found the man utterly charming and sweet underneath the thin layer of ice. He doted on the children, too, Erik was pleased to note.

And it didn't hurt that the King was bloody gorgeous to boot. Erik covered a rather shark-like smile.

Some might question why he would forgive the King so quickly after everything he put him through, but Erik couldn't help but feel grateful for all the troubles the King had thrust upon him. Without the trials and tests in the maze, Erik might have gone on living his life being resentful of everything.

Now he had a wonderful, charming husband, two adventurous, but kind children and a whole kingdom of friends.

He had a family.

Erik wished silently to himself as everyone ate and drank merrily that his parents could have been there to see it, but he was content with the idea that they were watching him from above. He hoped that they could finally be proud of him, now that he had gotten his priorities together.

After all, he was, he wouldn’t say bride, but consort, to the Goblin King, which meant that he had to help him with the kingdom.

He also had a feeling that his children would flourish here. They had already charmed Raven and Hank, and Azazel and Logan tolerated them good-naturedly as well.

Erik turned to look at his newly-wedded husband. Charles was smiling widely and talking to Logan who sat across the table from them about battle practice or something or other to do with the guard. Erik wasn't really listening. He was too busy staring at the alcohol-induced flush on Charles's face, which was utterly adorable. Without even thinking about it, he leaned sideways and placed a soft kiss on Charles's cheek.

When Charles turned wide eyes and red cheeks to him, Erik was already looking the other way, drinking deeply from his glass of wine to hide his own flush of embarrassment. Charles stared at him for a moment, and when Erik failed to look back, still embarrassed as hell by his actions, he leaned forward until his lips were touching Erik's ear.

"How about we leave a bit early? Raven and Azazel already promised that they would tuck the children in, and Logan's all set to take watch."

Erik flushed deeply and ignored the good-natured jeers from the surrounding partygoers. He turned his face slightly so that he was staring deeply into Charles's eyes and smiled.

"Yeah, I could use an early night."

The other inhabitants of the castle saw neither hide nor hair of either of them for the next twenty-four hours.

 

~The End~


End file.
